Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration restricted Louisiana Education Superintendent John White's ability to approve contracts, possibly complicating the fight over Common Core for White and the state school board.
(NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune archive)

Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration has restricted the state school board and Education Superintendent John White's ability to approve the agency's contracts, a move that could make the fight over Common Core more difficult for both White and the state school board.

The Jindal administration on Wednesday suspended White and the school board's authority to sign contracts worth over $2,000 without approval from Jindal officials. The previous threshold was $20,000.

The move comes one day after the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education voted to contract with outside lawyers to possibly fight the governor in court over Common Core testing. Jindal, once a supporter of Common Core, is now hoping to remove it from Louisiana's schools altogether. White and the school board are still Common Core supporters.

The school board's new contract restrictions would make it more difficult for the board to financially compensate independent legal counsel in a Common Core fight with Jindal. But the school board said they had already found lawyers to represent them pro bono.

"We had people who offered to work for us for free," said state school board president Chas Roemer.

Jindal officials have said any agreement the state school board signs with an outside law firm would already have to get written approval from the Jindal administration and the Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell, even if the lawyers agree to do the work pro bono.

Also, when asked about whether the new contracting limitations on White and the school board was related to their efforts to work with outside lawyers, the Jindal administration said it has more to do with previous concerns about how White and the state school board had used the procurement process.

The Jindal administration only provided one example of what they called troubling procurement behavior from White and the state school board. Officials pointed to an incident last month, when White and the school board announced they would use an existing state contract to purchase Common Core test questions Jindal opposes.

White and the school board announced they would use an existing vendor to purchase the questions, only after Jindal called into question whether the Department of Education could purchase its preferred test through a new contract.

The Jindal administration then temporarily suspended the vendor's contract, preventing White and the school board from using it to purchase Common Core test questions. Jindal said it was an inappropriate use of the vendor. White and the state school board maintained it was a proper use of the existing contract.

In fact, Roemer countered that the Jindal administration is inappropriately using the state procurement process, as a whole, to block Common Core. "They are taking every punitive step they can to stop us," said Roemer, "This is not what the procurement process was intended to do."

Jindal has turned against Common Core as opposition to the standards has built among conservatives across the country. The Louisiana governor is considering a run for president and Common Core might emerge as a hot issue during the 2016 Republican presidential primary.

In June, Jindal laid out a plan to drop both Common Core and a new standardized test to evaluate whether students have met the standards, prompting a fight from White and the state school board. The Louisiana Legislature -- which had several opportunities to scrap the national academic standards during its spring lawmaking session -- also declined to follow the governor on his anti-Common Core path.